So, how do YOU back up Exchange 2010?

Hi,

For backing up Exchange 2010, you  need to install NMM2.3 n above Module.

Please refer the Kb article for configuring Backup on NetWorker

How to configure NetWorker Module for Microsoft Applications (NMM) 2.3 to backup Exchange 2010

http://solutions.emc.com/EMCSolutionView.asp?id=esg124052&usertype=C

Regards

Panwar

Hi Jon,

Normally using NMM, Snapshots are taken for the full exchange DB. When a Snapshot is taken, NMM looks for the whole DB and then will create a copy of it at the point of time. Since this is been taken as full, it can be retained only for full level backups but cannot be retained for incremental level backups.

For instance If you have a FULL snap and performing an incremental, while taking the Snapshot it would rather consider it as FULL and would add the new incremental to the old full backup and will create a Full snapshot.

Granular recovery provides the ability to recover specific files in seconds from a single backup. This will reduce the recovery time.

Can you explain more on taking Backup and doing recovery in detail......

Hi,

With NMM, you can backup exchange DB by adding then as client resourse in your Networker setup and perform a backup.

During peak hours, you cannot bring down the DB, so you can take a snapshot at that point of time and use the snap.

The saveset used here would be APPLICATIONS:\Microsoft Exchange2010\

The same way you can perform the recovery of your backups.

You can refer NMM application guide : Chapter 6 : Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Backup and Recovery available on powerlink

Home > Support > Technical Documentation and Advisories > Software ~ J-O ~ Documentation > NetWorker Family > NetWorker Modules > NetWorker Module for Microsoft Applications > 2.4 & Services Packs

This will give you the detail explanation of how to configure, backup process to be followed and also will suggest you the different methodologies of recovery.

Come back if you need further clarifications

Thanks

Shivakiran

Hi,

Just small clarification:

All depends on what you want to achieve and also depends on your RTO/RPO.

You can take more than one snapshot per day, having the first rolled over a tape and then run backups keeping only the snapshot not being these rolled over a tape, so you would have a much faster restore from snapshots rather than restoring from backup sent to tape.

You can also have incremental backups, but these MUST be rolled over a tape, you cannot take non-persistent snapshots at incremental level.

Incremental backup will only take snapshot of the logs and not of the DB's, so in this case the RTO could be higher but you would be saving storage on your backup devices.

In order to "play around" with the configuration and the backup window you need to have a good understanding of the snapshot policies and the "interval" in the group configuration. These 2 elements are the ones that will allow you to specify the number of snapshots to be taken, how many to be rolled over to tape and how often the backup will run.

For instance you could configure the snapshot policy to take 8 snapshots, roll over to tape the first one, and keep the rest. The snapshots not rolled over will expire on the same day and the backup will run every 3 hours within one day.

To have this kind of configuration you need to have enough storage to keep the snapshots, otherwise you could fall into a file system getting filled out.

Thank you.

Carlos.

Ideally, what I would like to do is take snapshots every 2 or 3 hours during the day, and back up the last one.  My concern is that since persistent snapshots are only for FULL backups, I would be doing a full backup every night.  Is that right or can I still have local snaps during the day, and do an incremental backup off the last one at the end of the day?

Thanks all, all your responses have been really helpful and I appreciate it.

Jon

Hi Jon,

You could set to have the first one full, rolled over to tape let's say at midnight, and then run the same group every 3 hours with the same snapshot policy, which could be either to roll over the first one or the last one.

If you set the "Force Incremental" option in the group configuration the backup should be promoted to full when it detects that the snapshot is not going to be rolled over to tape, but the last one should be incremental, as that one will be rolled over to tape.

You can also roll over to tape any backup from the snapshot management snap-in of NMM GUI, just for your information.

You need to set the NSR_RETAIN_SNAPSHOTS=yes, and having in mind that the interval goes from 0:00 to 24:00 then you can select which snapshot to roll over in the snapshot policy, either the first one or the second one or anyone you want using the right values:

Valid values Description

All               

The All attribute is used to roll over the replica for every backup to the conventional backup medium. The data can be recovered from the conventional backup medium, even if persistent snapshots (valid or invalid) are not available:

• To back up SYSTEM COMPONENTS, the snapshot policy must specify “All” in the Backup Snapshot field. NMM enforces this policy to ensure that a permanent backup of the snapshot exists. If you attempt to restore SYSTEM COMPONENTS from a persistent snapshot, the snapshot can become invalid and leave the system in an unrecoverable state.

• For Data Protection Manager backups, the Backup Snapshot attribute must be set to All. Backup will fail if any other value is used.

Every n Where

Where n denotes the exact snapshot that should be rolled over.

Last

The Last snapshot will be rolled over.

None

Roll over the snapshots manually.

Thank you.

Carlos.

First

The first snapshot will be rolled over.

This is where I am confused, Carlos.  If I roll over the first or last snapshot, aren't I still getting a complete FULL backup of Exchange every night?  We have well over 1TB of mail so running a full to tape every night isn't an option for us. 

My goal is this:

-Starting at 7AM, snapshots are taken every 2 hours and stored on local storage

-At 9PM, the last snapshot is rolled into a conventional incremental backup (incremental to last night's backup)

-Every Friday night, a full backup is taken.

I like the idea of having local snapshots during the day for instant recoveries, but if I set the snapshot policy to backup 'None', I get the following error:

80274:nsrsnap_vss_save:NMM.. Error: "Backup Snapshots" field of snapshot policy cannot be "none" or "0". Group: "Exchange" Snapshot Policy: "Exchange Snapshots" Rollover: "None".

80253:nsrsnap_vss_save:NMM.. Unable to continue backup.  "APPLICATIONS:\Microsoft Exchange 2010" snapshot policy requirements are not met.

Internal error.

So if I'm reading that correctly, I HAVE to back up a snapshot, and if I do that it will be full.  Is that right?  I feel like I'm still missing something.

Thanks,

Jon

Hi Jon,

sorry for the delay in my answer.

Let's see if I can be more specific...

Having in mind that only snapshots rolled over to tape can be level incremental then you can only run incremental backups for this kind of backups (would be like in the snapshot policy set to "backup=all).

What do you really want? I could give you all different possibilities but will take less time if you tell me what you really want.

Do you want ONLY to take incremental backups during the day and ONLY one full at midnight?

Do you want to save storage on the backup devices?

Do you prefer to have the best RTO?

Depending on your needs I could suggest you different snapshot policies and group intervals.

Thank you.

Carlos.

Hi Jon,

Are all your doubts now solved with this informaiton?

Thank you.

Carlos.

Hello Carlos,

Sorry, to interrupt your conversation with Jon, but I am almost in similar situation like Jon,
and would like to ask you for your meaning, how to do that.

Currently we are running backup of only passive DBS.

Environment: Exchange2010 DAG with 2 nodes  with 10 Exchange databases
Backup schedule : Friday Full, daily incr. 
Snapshot policy:  Serverless Backup.

What I would  additionally to above solution is to have always one fresh snapshot stored on
one dedicated drive on DAG nodes (e.g. node01: drive Z:\ and node02 drive Z:\)

The persistent snapshot should be created every 3 hours and removed directly after the next snapshot is created. This snapshot should be used only for instant recoveries.

The snapshot policy should be smth. like this, but I am not sure can this work:

Number of Snapshots: 8
Retain Snapshot: 1
Snapshot Expiration Policy: 3 hours (is this possible ?)
Backup Snapshots: none
-----

Group interval=3

Thanks.

Hi,

So let's see if I can make a better explanation so that you can create your own snapshot policies...

Group Considerations:

Group Interval: Interval when the backup group will be ran. 3=backup will be ran every 3 hours.

Snapshot Policy Considerations:

Number of snapshots: Number of snapshots that will be taken for the group assigned with this snapshot policy (in 24 hours).

Retain snapshots: Number of snapshots NOT SENT to backup device.

Snapshot expiration policy: Period of time when the snapshots retained (not sent to backup device) will be deleted from the system (day, week, month, year, decade). Bear in mind that the more snapshots you keep the most storage you will need, so keeping more snapshots will require more storage and if not using HW provider from vendor VSS is not aware of storage utilization and can lead to file system filled up.

Backup snapshot: Which snapshots you want to be SENT to backup device.

Now, having this said I think is very easy to do the maths to determine the snapshot policy and group interval you need to set depending on what you want to achieve.

Now, what you mention is to have ONLY one snapshot at a time, correct?

If you want to run the backup every 3 hours then yes, group interval has to be set to 3 now, the snapshots, if you want to send to backup device only one, then set backup snapshot=x where x is the number of the snapshot you want to backup. For instance, if you want to run first snapshot at 0:00 but not to back it up, then the next at 3:00 and you don't want to back up that one either, next one at 6:00 and that is the one you want to backup, then set backup snapshot=3, check the documentation for more informaiton about the possible values, but you can set something like 1-3-5, in case you want to backup more than once per day, otherwise set first if you want to bakcu ponly the first one.

What you are asking is not possible I'm afraid, delete one snapshot when the next one is taken in that scenario, as validity of the snapshots is defined by the value "Snapshot expiration policy) and minimum is "Day" so snapshot will be kept for at least 24 hours.

Thank you.

Carlos.

Hi,

carlos,

sorry, to intrupt.

How can i configure backup with my exchange2010 environment,

Environment: Exchange2010 DAG with 4nodes  with 28 Exchange databases

Backup schedule : Friday Full, daily incr. 

Snapshot policy:  Serverless Backup.

Exchange Database----Three instances of Exchange with different Virtual names are running on 3 active Exchange Database servers and database will be uniformly distributed. The backup will be configured to run from each active instance.

kindly let me know the how can i configure the backup as daily incremental and weely full.

thanks

azmath